Pardon me...I've been living in a van for 11 days.

There she is folks, *Leslie. We picked her up in Christchurch in hopes to explore the entire south island...and we were successful. NZ (they pronounce it NZed) is a gorgeous country with such diverse landscape and kind people. I can't wait to show you around.... :)

First and foremost though...getting to NZ. Bri and I booked our flights from SYD - CHC just a few days ahead of time...little did we know (and soon were we to find out) that they don't allow you into the country unless you have a way of getting out. Sooooo...there we were at the ticket counter when we heard the news. We had 45 minutes to book a flight out of NZ...problem was, we didn't know where we were going next. We scrounged up all of our loose coinage (Aus currency has $1 and $2 coins) and got on the brutally slow computers in the international terminal and started putting in dates and cities. At that point we were running out of time on the computers and time to get on our flight! With 30 seconds of credit remaining and Bri in the midst of booking her flight, I became a homeless person begging for change. I was denied by an old man and saved by a young boy, promising I'd pay him back (which I have yet to do). With five minutes to spare we checked in our bags and headed to customs...yes customs, which we totally forgot about...(it was our first flight out of Aus). We smiled and got through the line and began our sprint to our gate. Knocking over small children and racks of duty free goods (ok not really)...we heard them calling our flight. We showed up, two sweaty Americans, and walked right onto the plane. PHEW! Cheers to a good rush.

Once we landed in ChCh (Christchurch) we had zero plans of where we were staying. Our friend from Colorado, Blake, had studied abroad in NZ and had a good friend (Tim) that I had been in touch with for the past few months. The plan was to stay with him and figure out our route around the country from there...well due to the earthquake, Tim moved to Dunedin, NZ with his job. So our choice was easy...hostel here we come. Bri met a nice fella from Aus as she booked our hostel from the airport...Grant became our date for the evening and our roommate for the night (and completely harmless).

It was amazing to see the destruction in the city. The CBD was blocked off (where the main damage occurred) but evidence of the earthquake was easy to see.

"We will save this house" 

The majority of the roads were separated and uneven

After checking in to our hostel, we made our way to one of the only restaurants still operating in the city. We had a few Speight's (NZ beer), some food, and made our first Kiwi friend! His name is Graeme and he's way cool. FYI He was eating out for dinner because he still has no running water at his house.

Grant, Me, Bri and Graeme

Our thought was to meet some locals to make our plan of attack rather than read a book about it. And bam there you have him, Graeme, the travel advisor. He helped us map out our 11 days in the beautiful country (which is actually very comparable in size to Colorado...fun fact!). Oh and I felt an after shock at the restaurant...it was small but my feet shook and it was neat.

xo.
L.